Sunday...The Royal Palace

Slept in again and feel fully refreshed.  Today I had two cups of coffee and a peice of toast. I sat in bed and read emails, worked on blog, the usual. Amanda and Alice didn't get up until nearer 11:00-11:30...which was nice for them I'm sure. 

Patricia was up with her granddaughter who had spent the night. Little Mia is adorable and sweet but she encounters new people all the time through her moms work so she isn't too keen on chatting with still more strangers. 

...

At 12:45 Amanda and I met Rhiannon,Tanner, and Sierra at the Apple store and from there we all walked to el Palacio Real (Royal Palace) for a tour. 

 

(Inside the Palace.  This is the Prince's courtyard)

(View from the front windows to the Cathedral)

(The grand first half of the stairwell)

View of the walls and ceiling.  Every single room had frescos painted on the ceiling like this one)

(Photo thanks to Rhiannon's Facebook)

 

(Looking across the entry hall from right in front of where the tour of the rooms/living quarters began)

 

After this point no more photography was allowed so I can't show you any pictures of the excesses and beauty of this place.  There are red rooms, green rooms, blue and gold rooms, there is a room completely covered in porcelain, all of which was crafted in Spain.  It is still used by the royal family today whenever they visit Madrid but is not their primary residence... Also we will likely be returning.

 

Amanda and I had to leave for lunch at 2:30.  It was chicken, rice with veggies, gazpacho, and cherries for lunch today (and of course bread).  I have found that I have trouble drinking a whole glass of gazpacho.  I like the first few sips but then I really can't get down anymore. (Gazpacho is kind of a cold tomato based juice...Cold tomato soup!)

 

 ...

Around 9 Amanda, Alice, and I went out together; Alice needed to run to the store and we two wanted a stretch before finishing our homework. 

We encountered a fairly large crowd dispersing after what appeared to have been some religious parade surrounding this:

(Photo courtesy of Amanda)

We asked someone what it was but none of us, even Alice, could not understand her accent.  Apparently, it is connected with the celebration of Corpus Christi, which was on Thurs.  There were tons of people with white Lily flowers and several people walked by dressed in these medieval looking robes.  (I will try to gather more information about this event)

 

For "dinner" we went up to the Museo de Jamon on Calle de Mayor...it is as you can imagine filled with ham.  It also has small baguette sandwiches called bocadillos  and tapas for sale.  We all got a small lettuce, tomato and egg sandwich on a croissant and walked back down to a small open place on Calle Mayor that has a monument to those who were killed in the assignation attempt on King Alfonso XIII and his queen Victoria Eugenia in 1906.  this is directly above our street.  There we ate our sandwiches, some fruit, and some sour cream and onion pringles that Amanda had gotten at the store.

  

After eating and talking about our plans for the next few weeks and our time here so far we went for some ice cream.  (Dulce de Leche for me)

Then we returned home to finish homework and soon went to bed.